Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The vog's effect on Protea
Conditions of Volcanic Out Gassing (VOG) continue around the south side of Big Island. The worst, so far, for us in Ocean View was overnight and morning of the 15th and 16th. That morning the civil defense trucks came by with loudspeakers suggesting voluntary evacuation due to high sulfur dioxide levels. The "danger" was gone by 10am, when the wind blew it all back out to sea, but the damage to the Protea plants had been done. When we went out to pick flowers 24 hours later, we found a whole field of burnt plants.Sulfur Dioxide, when mixed with water, forms sulfuric acid. While we could treat and use the water, any rain now would be very acidic. However, the sulfur dioxide as a gas, when present in high quantities, is taken into the bodies of living plants and animals through standard respiration (breathing) where it meets water in the cells, again forming sulfuric acid, burning from the inside.
Kilauea volcano has been producing 8-10 times the normal background rate of sulfur dioxide daily. The vog consists of this sulfur dioxide, volcanic ash, and dust. We have better days, but mostly it is hazy now and we seldom can see the coastline. We are having a particularly bad day today.
The Protea plants are still alive. No plant seems to have actually died. However, on many plants, much of the actively respiring tissue has been killed, and another episode like last week could finish them off. Older leaves, at the base of a branch, were often spared, as well as the newest, soft growth (new tissue that may have not yet begun respiration.) This produces a plant that looks burnt in the middle, yet growing from the tips.)
There are differing levels of damage on different Proteaceae species, and cultivars within the species. Australian Proteaceae seem to have sustained the least damage, although we have seen some effects on Banksia Prionotes and Grandis seedlings. The King Protea, with the waxiest of leaves, seems to have faired well, as have most of the leucadendron varieties (Safari Sunset.) The mink and Queen Proteas, and a majority of the Hawaiian leucospermum (pincushion) varieties, have taken the worst damage, varying by parentage. Showing the worst damage amongst the Protea was Pink Mink (Protea neriifolia.) Our leucospermums (pincushions) took a lot of damage; many of which were flush with new growth at the end of their flowering season. Pincushion varieties with glabrum, cuneiforme, or conocarpodendron parentage seem to have the most tolerance though still took damage, while those with cordifolium, tottem or reflexum parentage look so bad, it makes me want to cry. Leucospermum lineare, patersonii, and vestitium varieties, which are also common in Hawaiian pincushion, showed moderate damage, relative to the others.
The pictures don't do the damage justice; when you visit the field, what gets you first is the smell of dead vegetation. Each leaf, on many of the plants, is 75-90% dead. Two effect have been hard on the leaves: the extra particulate matter in the air, often the density of talc, sucks the moisture out of the tissue, leaving the leaves scorched on the tips and edges as though a very hot day after a period of water stress, dried them; then secondly the sulfuric acid effect, that appears almost like a chemical burn on the leaf, at first, then the burned tissue desiccates. The non-transpirant parts of the plants, very new tissue, stems, and leaf buds, do not seem effected. The plants, disregarding the damage, look very healthy, in fact the undamaged tissue has actually grown remarkably since the incident, as though the plants now have extra energy even as we deny them water.We are also seeing damage to some pincushion flowers, and the bracts (the colorful parts that surround, and are often mistaken for, the flowers) of the mink and Queen Protea varieties. In the pincushion flowers we have seen whole flower heads of shrivelled pins. In the Protea the damage appears as a bronzing of the colorful bracts surrounding the flower head. On some varieties this is more destructive to the look of the flower than in others.
Next steps: wait, wait and more wait. Some of the growers on the hill met with the government people, of course this has never happened before, so they can only help us test some theories of what might help, should it ever happen in the future. We are trying a couple of chemicals, in standard, controlled, tests on several varieties along with the other growers, but we know that its not really a viable way to grow the flowers. Even if a chemical could prove useful, could it possibly be worth the cost of applying it. Instead, we will hopefully determine what Proteacea can tolerate the conditions supplied by the volcano. We haven't heard how the Macadamia trees are doing yet. They were also at the end of their flowering cycle. Macadamia is a Proteacae too, from Tasmania, but like the other Australian Proteacae, it may tolerate the bad air more than the South African Protea and Leucospermum. We will have to wait, at least a season, before we remove anything from the ground that doesn't just die. It is important that we determine if the plants can recover, and what the long term effects will be. link | posted by Reese at 10:43 AM
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Sunday, April 20, 2008
The lonely straight man
The transition from a culture where male male sexuality is not the norm to a culture where it is more common and casual must produce a class of man who, while otherwise completely heterosexual, will seek out gay sex out of desperation for intimacy.With an assumption that all gay men are ready and hungry for sex all of the time, the lonely straight man will, as soon as he can muster the courage, seek out the first gay man that he can be sure is gay, and that fits some criteria of masculinity which he can respect. The lonely straight man will even offer himself submissively, figuring that if he tries it, and can stomach it, he might, as Woody Allen used to say, "double his chances for a date on Saturday night." He has no ideas about what he may want, or be "into", only that he is driven towards touch, affection and intimacy.
For some of us it may be hard to imagine a loneliness that must be common among single straight men, especially in a rural setting. Within the dictates of the straight male world, if he is not doing well with the ladies for several years, he may go a long time without even a hug. In the gay community, friendly intimacy, hugs and kisses upon greeting, etc. are common, even more so amongst the fraternity of those who for whatever reason are not engaged sexually as well. So even the single gay man who doesn't get sex much still feels touch, and connection to his peers. I can imagine that it would be very different for the single straight male in his mid forties or early fifties.
Now, the media, and even society at large, is telling him that those dictates of heterosexuality are not necessarily important. Hordes of unsatisfied and frustrated heterosexual men, who had been misled into believing that they must channel their need for warmth and play and touch into aggressive athletics, like football or boxing, are now wondering if they can get that whatever it is that they are missing from sucking dick.
A lonely straight man came to our door last night. He wasn't drunk, he wasn't impolite. He was afraid, he was hungry, he was confused and mortified by his own behaviour. I recognized him as someone that maybe I had cruised, just a little, in the town center parking lot. He had obviously found some gays he could respect in his community, and that, at least, is flattering. But, its a bit on the freaky side when someone comes down your eighth of a mile long driveway, unexpected, after dark, in the rural area where we live. Unlike the city, where your neighbors are ten feet away, here we sit in the middle of several acres, and the whole "defending your land" thing is a bit more of a concern. Maybe he was really here to rob the house, and was surprised that we were home. Maybe he was here just because he had "never sucked a guy's dick before," like he said. Either way, we sent him on his way, still lonely.
Part of me wants to help; no not that part of me, sure I may have cruised him once, pickings can be slim out here, you look at a lot of things, and I'm not really interested in a inexperienced blow job. Dad says the straights never had no care to help us, why should we help them! But, the affliction of loneliness is universal, and the straight's envy of our 'lifestyle' is one of the gay community's biggest enemies.
Ambivalence is squelching my Aloha. link | posted by Reese at 12:30 PM
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Happy 4/20
Visualize a new world for earth day!Replace
petroleum, cotton, wood pulp, tobacco, and alcohol
with
HEMP link | posted by Reese at 12:22 PM
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Sunday, April 06, 2008
Sky got a Scooter
O yeah, and as some of you might have noticed yesterday...Sky got a new Scooter. Top of the line, off-road ready, 2008 Honda Ruckus. link | posted by Reese at 12:59 PM
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The Vog
Its not so bad this morning. We had some precipitation last night; I won't call it rain because it accummulated less than a tenth of an inch, but it helped clear the air for now. We can see it, downhill, blocking our view of the ocean. We cannot even make out the coastline, the world just sorta ends about 1000 feet lower than us. It will come up the hill as the sun rises, warming the air, and sucking it upward. When it gets here, you taste it first, then the nose reacts, some run, others clog. Next, the eyes water and burn, and the throat gets dry. Finally, at its worst (so far, anyways) you start to feel it sucking the moisture right out of your skin.
Its kind of like walking in to an unventalated dressing room full of talcum powder and pancake makeup.
Periods of volcanic outgasing are relatively short, give or take a century. However, it is the wind patterns that determine where the vog goes and how it disperses. Unfortunately, the wind has been blowing it right to us. Tolver has gotten ill from the air. So, we are trying to get out from under it for at least a few hours each day, but the plants are not so lucky. As the air gets full of SO2 and ash it starts to suck the moisture right out of everything.
Kilauea Volcano is active at two locations. At the summit, the Halema`uma`u vent continued erupting ash. At the coast, lava continued to flow through lava tubes into the ocean at the Waikupanaha and Ki ocean entries. Actually, its been flowing into the ocean at one place or another, on and off, ever since we got here; that doesn't seem to be the problem. The new vent that has opened in Halema`uma`u is releasing a huge plume of gas and fine rock dust. When we left the house yesterday morning to drive to Puna to deliver flowers and play volleyball, we found the cloud of vog to just get thicker until you reach a point upwind of the summit. The Ka'u desert is saturated, and the sleepy little town of Pahala looks like Los Angeles on a bad smog day.
More than one person yesterday told me that I looked a little "under the weather." As we drove back home last night, we couldn't see it, but the symptoms come on, slowly, one at a time. Already, this morning, I feel the pain in my chest, the dryness of my hands, the taste in my mouth. We have lots of friends on the upwind side of the volcano, so we will probably head over back over there as soon as we can.
Its kind of like walking in to an unventalated dressing room full of talcum powder and pancake makeup.
Periods of volcanic outgasing are relatively short, give or take a century. However, it is the wind patterns that determine where the vog goes and how it disperses. Unfortunately, the wind has been blowing it right to us. Tolver has gotten ill from the air. So, we are trying to get out from under it for at least a few hours each day, but the plants are not so lucky. As the air gets full of SO2 and ash it starts to suck the moisture right out of everything.
Kilauea Volcano is active at two locations. At the summit, the Halema`uma`u vent continued erupting ash. At the coast, lava continued to flow through lava tubes into the ocean at the Waikupanaha and Ki ocean entries. Actually, its been flowing into the ocean at one place or another, on and off, ever since we got here; that doesn't seem to be the problem. The new vent that has opened in Halema`uma`u is releasing a huge plume of gas and fine rock dust. When we left the house yesterday morning to drive to Puna to deliver flowers and play volleyball, we found the cloud of vog to just get thicker until you reach a point upwind of the summit. The Ka'u desert is saturated, and the sleepy little town of Pahala looks like Los Angeles on a bad smog day.
More than one person yesterday told me that I looked a little "under the weather." As we drove back home last night, we couldn't see it, but the symptoms come on, slowly, one at a time. Already, this morning, I feel the pain in my chest, the dryness of my hands, the taste in my mouth. We have lots of friends on the upwind side of the volcano, so we will probably head over back over there as soon as we can.
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